42 -;' .....^.,. ,',...' ny" ) 11i: '.." '." . . "':'::.;i >' . . ""'!<;; ' """'." .... fi,,}'..:..... i\:.: <'" .. :, j:" ...... "'f.! .'. ;. .:..:.-.: . : ".".. . ",,' : ..:...'....,... t\ ;r . ":::...-: " . . ;;';.:.." :-.,:*= 'L ",. ; ',:,. "., '% ":.:.. .: .: . :.:{( f''';' . 11:::: " " ':;1 "... , t- . " ,.Í'M;J1- ", :": ,-'--'" \? t t...... . II F A C I ALP R E PAR A T ION S B YON D COM PAR JJ Since -the ye(Ai' 1769 -the b çic fOi'mul ç of -theçe pi'ep i' tjonç h ve existed in -the f mjly of Counteçç Alex ndi' de 1 J>koff. T od y they (Ai'e (Applied in çpeci fï'Zed ti'e tmentç in hei' S lon nd S'ponçored by -J=ifth Avenue'S' S'm rles1: S'hops'. S A LON: 0 NEE A S T F 1FT Y - T H I R D S T R E E T, NEW Y 0 R K fJlié FORD TO WN .. ' CAR .. .for those who are smart socially and mentally Because it threads its way safely through tiny traffic holes that would stop larger cars ...because it is quickly parked and unparked in unbelievably small space...the Ford Town Car saves precious minutes in getting about this busy isle. Theodore Luce invites you to inspect this beautiful and practical "companion car"- at either of his Lincoln Salons. THEODORE LUCE, INC. Park Central Salon: Park Avenue at 46th Street Wickersham 4920 Broadway Sa/on: Broadway at 56th Street Circle 6363 .... '. ...:.... ...."::-.. . :.. ii:>':":"':Ù, ;.;: igL(i#è:::;:...,;w i/ ...f..;, ....:. '... .... .............. ;:. ::.....:..:-::: . ::. .:.: ',:.t . ".) :: :' - ..: .< - .:. .::::.". .. :. : .. . :::: ':"::: ":,: . : -, f '/ r : ' '\.':'-" 'N' -.. \ ' , i;"J-.,*,cA:'>. , f. .' :"' '_ _ tJ, · "," '" ',' ' -,,:W, ,-' " , ' '....--'''- . .....,:'\, \::::;::t:::: ?:;:: \ \'. - . -:.- . --::-......:-.. Æ{.t (- .' . '::,' :1.::: , ..,:J :=:.",.J. ,,> ..., v..,.:k::: $t:&, ,:,,_ \;:.\'. .: " . MAR.CH 2.2., 19.30 ledge of rock so he ,would have a place to sit down comfortably among them. When he had shoved all the snakes away, he did sit down on the rock, a fine shirt-sleeved figure of an Irish- man, elbow on knee, chin in hand. The snakes disliked the light; they dis- liked Toomey; they were gliding slow- ly toward another corner. Suddenly Toomey poked the rat with his stick and wiggled it across in front of the first snake. The trick worked. Before I could blink, the snake had seized the rat by its nose and started gliding away with it. Toomey checked it with his stick, and the snake, content, paused in its tracks and began the slow process of drawing the rat into its throat. To all appearances this would be an impossible thing to do, for the rat's body was fully twice as big as the snake's head; but the snake lay still and held on, its breath coming in occasional stifled gasps through a clogged windpipe. As I stared, fascinated, the rat seemed grad- ually to grow less. The jaws of the sna e edged imperceptibly forward- not upper and lower, but side and side; the bones of the snake's head expanded; and the saliva began to flow. It was like a rubber tube being fitted tediously over a much larger pipe, and it was a grim, silent meal- T 00l11ey sitting 'quietly on the rock, the other snakes shifting their long selves about in the corner, their winding trails throwing shadows in the gravel, the gopher snake hanging on to the rat, pulling it in until only the tail was protruding. The snake, \vith the rat's tail sticking frol11 its mouth, looked as though it had a long pink tongue. Once the rat was inside the throat, the job began to be speeded up, and the voyage from the throat to the stol11ach was comparative- ly rapid and quite easy to trace-the peristaltic muscles pulling the rat down in a plain bulge to the stomach, which is practical1y in the l11iddle of a snake. (( T HE rat," said Dr. Ditmars cheer- fully, "will be cOl11pletely dissolved in the snake's stomach-teeth, bones, legs, and all. And now," he added, "you'll see something . We'll feed a python. Pythons are constrictors. They strangle their food before they eat it." A Regal python, seventeen feet long, lay in its drinking tank at the end of the row of cages. It lay there like Kaa, thinking over all the things it had ever known. It was not the largest python in the snake house, but it would be the l110st fun to feed because it would have a harder job getting a fat red hen in its mouth than would the immense